Black Pistol Fire

Black Keys blues miss only Dan Auerbach’s production credit on Black Pistol Fire’s eponymous debut. Instead, the former Toronto duo of Kevin McKeown (guitar/vox) and Eric Owen (skins) recruited Jim Diamond to transform its South Austin garage rock into an urban beatdown back in Detroit, where the producer’s early work with the White Stripes and long tenure in the Dirtbombs – not to mention a short stint in mid-1990s Austin – ups the ante from local Chili Cold Blood and guts to smoking gun powder burns. A spidery guitar break on opener “Cold Sun” and McKeown’s end flourish on “Jezebel Stomp” loosen aural pheromones leading to a Red River rumble on “Your Not the Only One,” though it’s the roundhouse wallop of “Black Eyed Susan” backed by the cymbal splash and guitar sirens of “Silent Blue” that sets Black Pistol Fire rolling and tumbling toward the last third of the LP. Bull’s-eye.

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This article appears in June 17 • 2011.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.